Saturday, August 04, 2007

The B.O. of August

Bourne has knocked Homer out of first place.

The Friday results are in, and Bourne Ultimatum snatches $24.5 million from the pockets of movie-goers, while The Simpsons Movie takes $8.1 mill.

The live-action version of Underdog flies in at #3 and a $4.1 million gross.

Ratatouille has now fallen out of the Top Ten. This Friday it collects $1,185,000 of its $185,443,000 domestic gross. (The company will be rolling the French rat out slowly overseas, being careful to keep it out of the path of the juggernauts known as Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean 3.0.)

Update: Bourne Ultimatum knifes the opposition as it collects $2.6 million less than Homer et famile took in a week ago. First weekend total: $70.2 million.

The Simpsons Movie drops 65.4%, leading to the belief that its audeince was maybe ah, front-loaded. It collects $25.6 million of its $128.5 million domestic total.

The third place Underdog snarfs up $12 million in its debut weekend...

And Ratatouille drops 46% as it grosses $4 million on its way to a $188.3 million total.

Update 2: The Hollywood Reporter weighs in with a box office report/review of Underdog, the third flick in the box office hit parade:

"Underdog," the live-action Walt Disney Pictures film based on the 1964-73 Saturday morning cartoon series, has a tail-wagging sense of wit and fun but is undone by an increasingly lame story and physical gags in the latter phases.

Still, it isn't nearly as bad as you would expect given that the studio held its only press screening the night before the film's national opening.

...[T]he movie, under the direction of Frederik Du Chau (who directed another critter comedy, "Racing Stripes"), seems to have many things going for it as a family comedy. Alas, it fritters this all away with a "Batman"-style plot to destroy Capitol City by Dr. Simon and a gang of bad dogs led by a tough called Riff Raff (voiced by Brad Garrett).

It's worth noting that Mr. Du Chau also directed Quest For Camelot earlier in his career. So the animation...ah...pedigree for Underdog is extensive.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stood in to watch a bit of Underdog while waiting for "Bourne Ultimatum" to start ("Bourne" was a blast!).

I was shocked at how inept, incompetant, and un-entertaining Underdog was. Sure, it was a bad idea to begin with, but the direction of the film shows no skill with storytelling or audience identification on any level. It's not even good for KIDS (and I think that comment is an insult to begin with). Shockingly awful.

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